NMAK16004U Computational Finance

Knowledge (= a rough lecture plan)

• Rudimentary low-level programming.
• Data and computational resources at Copenhagen University and beyond.
• Monte Carlo simulation techniques in option pricing: Variance reduction, diffusion (and possibly Levy) process simulation, American options, adjoint techniques.
• Numerical transform methods for option pricing.
• Numerical optimization and model calibration.
• Numerical methods for solving parabolic partial differential equations. 

Only a selection (based on lecturer and student interest) of the last three topics will be covered.

Skills

High- and low-level programming as fits the problem.

Extracting and handling financial data.

Effcient use computaional resources, both wrt. hardware (distributed computing) and software (error order analysis).

Ability to implement Monte Carlo simulation techniques (to investigate pricing and hedging) for a large range of financial products and models.

Ability to implement a (limited) number of more specialized methods for more specific models and problems.

Competencies

Proficieny classical and modern numerical methods for quantitative finance problems. This is a question of having both a sizeable "toolbox" and the ability pick the appropriate on in a given situation.